Iruka's Family

Chapter 3

The next day Naruto came to class, wounds completely healed. Iruka was surprised, he had expected some swelling. Maybe this was how he never noticed. He began the class, all of a sudden he noticed how much Naruto was struggling to keep up. He was trying, but could not keep up with the class. Why had Iruka never noticed? He turned and looked at the boy.

"Naruto." The boy looked up, almost frightened. "Can you do the problem on the board?"

Maybe that was too harsh, but Iruka wanted to see if what he saw was true. The boy walked forward, picked up the chalk and tried to write. He was shaky, and looked like he could barely understand the equation. Iruka did what he should have done so long ago.

"You put the smaller number here, and then if it adds up to more than 10, move the second digit number over..." Iruka started to explain, Naruto did his best to follow, stopping ever so often to process the information. At the end of the day, Naruto had improved exponentially. Iruka decided he would have more one-on-one's with him more often. Before Naruto let the classroom Iruka called out his name.

"Naruto, would you like to have private lessons with me?" The boy looked at him puzzled. Iruka continued, "You seem to have trouble with some of your work, but today you learned so much when I explained it differently. I can't change how I teach the whole class, but that shouldn't stop you from learning." The boy thought for a moment, looked at him, and then pondered some more. Iruka then blurted out something quite stupid. "How about some ramen?"

That's how Iruka was walking with a 6 year old too Ichirakus. If it had been any other kid, Iruka would have been fired. But Naruto had no parents to yell at him. That's right...He was an orphan like Iruka. Iruka shook his head and tried to start a conversation.

"So have you ever been to Ichraku Ramen?"

"Yeah, Ramens my favorite, I eat it everyday!" The boy said, with a smile Iruka had never seen before. "Don't get it fancy that often though, too expensive."

They walked up to the stand and sat down, ording their food and talking. Naruto did most of the talking. Iruka enjoyed every bit of it, listening to Naruto made him so happy. He didn't understand why. But he let the blond chatter on about almost everything. The night would have been perfect if it were not for another customer coming in and causing a scene.

"I WILL NOT EAT WITH THAT MONSTER IN THE SAME ROOM!" They yelled, "GET THEM OUT!" The store keeper tried to calm them down, but nothing was working, and they refused to leave. Naruto's voice had left him,and he sank into his chair. He looked at Iruka and then left the stand. Iruka was ashamed to say he did nothing but watch the boy leave.

After the whole incident he couldn't eat another bite. He knew he should have done something, and right there and then made a vow to be a better teacher.

He kept that vow, and everyday after that did his best to tutor the kid, and to stop the bullying. He also made sure to have Ramen with the kid every so often. They had begun to bond, but Naruto was still hesitant to interact with Iruka at all. After that night the boy never chatted like that again. Which Iruka hated. He wanted to hear the boy tell him all about his ideas. But Iruka was just his teacher, he had no right to hear that stuff. The other kids still avoided Naruto, so Iruka started to sit with him at lunch. He never realized how much he had in common with Naruto. He hoped he would get to know him even more.